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cyano problems

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by MadManMadrid, May 15, 2015.

  1. May 15, 2015 #1
    MadManMadrid Iowa City

    MadManMadrid Well-Known ReefKeeper

    440
    Iowa City
    Ratings:
    +158 / 4 / -0
    hi I got a 40 breeder tank with a 20 gallon long sump my tank is going on two months old and im getting cyano problem. its been about three weeks and it seems like its starting to hit a really good growth spurt. I have a reef octopus nw-150 skimmer it skims like a green tea color. I have 2 clowns a long nose hawk fish a 2 spotted goby for fish. and 4 small frags. I only feed about two pinches of new spectrum pellets for the clown and none of it hits the ground I feed slowly so the catch everything. then the hawkfish I feed 1/4 of a cube of Mysis shrimp about everyday he only really eats the bigger chunk and I feed with a syringe so again I only feed one chunk at a time. and the twin spotted goby I use microworms. I inject them in the sand he seems to be going to the spots where I put them so he must be eating them. I do water changes one a week on either Friday or Saturday. I have a softball sized piece of chateo that is now starting to turn white and die. I just cant find out what is going on. I make my own rodi water the filter is two months old I know because that's when I bought the unit. I use reef crystals salt mix. I also have about 50 lbs of rock in the tank. i dont think that I feed a lot, the rodi filters arnt that old, the skimmer is deffinatly pulling enough, I just cant figure out whats going on with this tank. im wondering if a gfo or biopellet reactor would help at this point. I have tried the three days lights out and it seemed to stunt it alittle but then when I turned the lights back on it came right back. I started to pull the rocks out and scrub them with a tooth brush in some tank water but now its spreading on other rocks I really don't want to try chemicals but if I have to then I have to. what do you guys think?
     
  2. May 15, 2015 #2
    Bud West Des Moines, IA

    Bud Loves Bacon Website Team Board of Directors Leadership Team GIRS Member Vendor

    8,876
    West Des Moines, IA
    Ratings:
    +1,818 / 14 / -0
    Your tank is really new so this stuff can pop in and out. See Myth #15 here

    Cyanobacteria is one of the oldest forms of life on the planet, and has the ability to basically manipulate the environment to suit it's needs. For a new tank (less than 6-12 months old) the best thing to do it try what you can to keep it at bay by making sure there is decent flow and multiple forms of filtration, but don't make drastic changes.

    Try things like:

    carbon
    GFO
    Purigen
    filter sock

    do not remove rock and scrub it. you can blow off the rock/sand and collect, or use a piece of hard airline tubing attached to some soft tubing and make a target siphon (works very well for dinos too) and siphon out what you can a few times per week, and just keep it up, it will eventually cycle out in most cases.

    Drastically changing things by doing things like removing rock and scrubbing it, flipping rock, tank blackouts, changing flow patterns, etc just cause the bacterial populations in the tank (good and bad) to go through a death/growth cycle, so if you keep doing that, you'll never get a stable tank.

    DT lights should really only need to be on about 8 or 9 hours/day so if you have it set higher than this, reduce it. If you're at 8-9/day already, leave it there. I am not a subscriber to the tank blackout method.
     
  3. May 15, 2015 #3
    MadManMadrid Iowa City

    MadManMadrid Well-Known ReefKeeper

    440
    Iowa City
    Ratings:
    +158 / 4 / -0
    I been doing the airline tubing thing seems to have helped then after that I noticed that it started to spread that's when I took a few of the rocks out and scrubbed them. so ill stop the scrubbing. my DT lights are on 10 am to 10 pm so ill shorten them down. the fuge lights on 24/7 I changed it to 12/12 a while back and noticed the cheato started to die so I just keep it 24/7. ok ill look into gfo. should I take the cheato out because its getting choked out or leave it and let the cyno and cheato battle to the death?
     
  4. May 15, 2015 #4
    Bud West Des Moines, IA

    Bud Loves Bacon Website Team Board of Directors Leadership Team GIRS Member Vendor

    8,876
    West Des Moines, IA
    Ratings:
    +1,818 / 14 / -0
    DT Lights to 8 hours/day, feed about 15 minutes before lights out, just what they can eat. Run the fuge lights like you said, 24/7, and prune the ball of chaeto probably every couple days to keep it from getting too dense. Pruning and rotating chaeto is important because it is self-shading.

    Do you have N and P readings? What kits do you use?

    You don't necessarily need a reactor for GFO and carbon, a mesh bag in a moderate flow area of the sump will do at least some good (cheap short term solution)
     
  5. May 15, 2015 #5
    MadManMadrid Iowa City

    MadManMadrid Well-Known ReefKeeper

    440
    Iowa City
    Ratings:
    +158 / 4 / -0
    My nitrates are sitting about 8 I use a api test kit . Ok I'll trim up the dead things but it doesn't seem to be growing that's the thing. It's been the same size since the last time I trimmed it two weeks ago. Same size I even tried flatting it out some to get light through. That's what I did last time then it really grew like it should. But now it just doesn't want to grow
     

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